SOUTH Luzon Tollways Corp. opened the South Luzon Expressway extension to Santo Tomas, Batangas, from Calamba, Laguna, to vehicles on Wednesday, and for free until the end of the month.

“We are just answering the clamor of the public this Christmas season and we will still not collect toll from them,” South Luzon president Isaac David told reporters at the expressway’s opening.

Also Wednesday, officials opened the Buendia-to-Bicutan Skyway’s extension to Sucat to vehicles, and it’s expected to help ease traffic this holiday season. The Skyway’s final extension to Alabang from Buendia, a distance of 6.88 kilometers, is expected to be finished by May 2011.

David said the 7.6-kilometer extension, called Toll Road 3, was built on a P3-billion budget, or around 25 percent of the P11.3-billion cost of rehabilitating the Alabang-to-Batangas toll road.

“This will be free to the public until December 31. After that, we will wait for the Toll Regulatory Board’s approval of [the toll on the extension],” David said.

The proposed rate on the newly-opened expressway is P3.02 per kilometer for cars and jeepneys, P6.05 for buses and light trucks, and P9.07 for heavy trucks.

The expected traffic for Toll Roads 3 was 30,000 vehicles a day, David said.

South Luzon Tollways obtained a 25-year concession in 2006 to operate the South Luzon Expressway. The company took over the told road in May from Philippine National Construction Corp.

The company will be waiving the toll on the road from 10 pm on Dec. 24 to 6 am on Dec. 25, and from 10 pm om Dec. 31 to 6 am on Jan. 1.

“This will serve as a good Christmas present to the public,” David said.